Godkiller
by blue weekends
Summary: XCOM attempts to recruit survivors of a retaliatory attack from ADVENT in preparation for the weeks to come. Among them is a young engineer named Erica who will become one of XCOM's first martyrs.


_30th March 2035_

It is snowing in the middle of spring on the day Haven fell.

Everyone runs to hide in the town hall as the militia grab the few weapons they have to fend off ADVENT. Even as we huddle under tables and peer out the windows, we hear the sounds of fighting and screaming outside. No-one can find Denmother and the sounds of our militia's weapons can be heard being cut off one by one as they are each drowned out by the blasts of gauss rifles.

We all know what ADVENT do to insurgents. We have heard the reports of other settlements that had been visited by their peacekeepers over the network. We have listened to stories from firsthand survivors that drifted to us for refuge. There seems to be no place in the world where people like us are safe, but we at Haven have been foolish enough to believe otherwise, until today where it is too late.

As the last of our militia are silenced, we begin to cough, our skin prickling as we feel ourselves sweat. ADVENT barricades the doors from the outside and we were all scrabbling to get out through the windows, smashing them with chairs as the soldiers outside prepare the flamethrowers. They wait for us as we dive out the windows like rats from an oven, and begin shooting us one by one. I hide under the bodies of people I have known my entire life, telling myself to stay still and praying that I am not hit by a stray shot.

Then the ADVENT soldiers turn their attention away from us as they shout at each other in their guttural language. Sounds of a great engine above our heads. Near Haven is a running stream, and even from where I am I hear running boots sloshing through the water. Help has arrived.

I don't wait. I get up and run, covering my mouth and nose as I try not to breath in the smoke. Foolish of me. Footsteps follow me and I am pulled around by the shoulder to stare up into the visage of an ADVENT trooper as he reached behind his back to unlimber a stun baton. It whirs to life as he lifts it above his head. I screw my eyes shut and beg. I wait for the end.

I am surprised. The ear-splitting crack of a rifle shot flings the ADVENT away from me, the trooper spinning like a top and bleeding like a smashed bottle as he crashed into a stack of supply crates. His baton hits the dirt with a crackle of electricity while my knees give way in relief. I stay like this for some time as my world burns around me. It is the only thing I have ever known for I am only seventeen, born after the invasion.

This is how XCOM finds me. Two of them – one man and one woman - come across me in full pelt. The man kneels over me and shakes me as the woman pumps a shotgun and looks around nervously. "Girl, look at me," The man hisses through a bandana. He is Caucasian, clean-shaven and looks like he is only a few years older than me, but it's hard to tell with his shades. A small drone flits above his head, beeping anxiously. "You're not safe here. You need to run. There is transport nearby that will take you out of here. Head towards the stream and look for the blue flares." He shoves a carbine rifle into my hands as I begin to come to. The grip is slick and sticky and the barrel is hot. Its owner must have died and just recently. "Do you know how to use this?" He asks.

"A little," I admit. Everyone in Haven has practiced with a weapon of some sort at least once. We have a firing range out at a nearby meadow. But we have never been attacked before, so few of us are even decent. "But I never hit anything beyond a target."

"Just point and shoot," the man says. "Remember. Blue flares. Stay away from the red." He pulls me to my feet and shoves me, and before I know it I am running while cradling the bloodied rifle as the two XCOM operatives run ahead to where the fight is. I shiver as I hear the shriek of something inhuman.

As I clear Haven's building and make for the stream, I see other people already ahead of me, stumbling and coughing from the smoke as they cross the water. I see another man in fatigues and a bandana kneeling on the other side with a long-barrelled rifle and scanning the perimeter, letting everyone pass him as his weapon roared like thunder. He sees me and waves as I come closer. "Skyranger is just up ahead," he says. "Did you see anyone else on the way here?" I shake my head. He nods and tilts his earpiece closer to his lips. "Keith, I think we got everyone. We can start pulling back now."

I look over his shoulder and I stiffen. One of the other town members is slowing down and convulsing. She turns to us and I feel the hairs on my back go on end at the sight of her glowing red eyes.

I don't think I have ever seen her before in my life. Haven has around a hundred people but I can name every single one of them, and there haven't been any new faces in a while.

The sniper halts and follows my gaze. He curses and I gasp as the woman begins to shrivel and enlarge, skin melting and features blurring together, long black claws elongating from its hands. It must be an Alien.

The sniper lines it up in his sights but the weapon clicks empty. He is groping for a new magazine out of the pouches around his waist as the Alien approaches us both in a run, deceptively fast. The other people are getting out of its path, but it knocks aside a man with a contemptuous backhand, the force of its blow sending him falling onto his back a fair distance away. I raise my weapon as the sniper tries to reload, point and hold my finger down on the trigger. I however forget about the recoil, and the weapon kicks back in my arms, my shots going up and wide off the mark. The sniper changes his mind, drops his rifle and reaches for his revolver.

But at that point the Alien is upon us with its pungent odour hitting us and making my stomach heave. The sniper takes the first blow in the chest, crumpling underneath the claws as he is lifted from his feet to fly back and crash into the stream. I clumsily dive aside from the Alien's second swing, roll onto my back and continue to fire with my finger squeezing the trigger as tightly as possible. This time I hit what I am aiming for. The Alien flinches back and covers its face with one gelatinous limb as I shower it with rounds.

I crane my head to look at the sniper. He is lying facedown and motionless in water running red. I spy his revolver on the ground nearby as my weapon also clicks empty. I toss it away, get to my knees and scoop the revolver up. It is heavier than I thought. Strangely, the weight comforts me.

I don't get the chance to use it immediately. The Alien turns run. I stand up and watch it as it bounds into the woods. I notice the glowing blue light in the trees, and realise what it is doing.

So I give chase, ignoring the cries of Haven's people who call me to stay. I follow the Alien into those woods. I catch up to it as it attacks those who were waiting near the blue flares for the rope to come down from above. There are three of them and they have an unconscious Denmother between them and are unarmed.

I ignore the fact that I could easily hit one of my own and I shoot at the Alien's back as I hear the people who are my friends and family scream for help.

I am idiotically lucky. The Alien convulses as the shot somehow, against all odds, hits its mark. The Alien turns to me and decides to deal with me first. It lunges forward and while I try to avoid it, the claws catch my sleeve nonetheless and rip the revolver out of my hand. I fall back, hearing myself shriek and whimper at the hot blood running down my skin from the cuts. The pain is not a new thing. But despite that, it always hurts to feel it once more.

More XCOM arrive, and as I look up at the Alien as it is terminated, I find myself at that stage where what hurts becomes numb and I become drowsy as the loss of blood takes its toll. Time is displaced. I am aware and not aware of people leaning over me and arguing while a drone beeps. Cold fingers at my neck. A tourniquet being applied after a med spray. My vision fades as I see a ship floating in the sky.

And this is how I come to be recruited by XCOM.

* * *

**After Action Report:**

**OPERATION RIGHTEOUS THUNDER  
NEW WARSAW, POLAND**

_Personnel Deployed in Mission_

**Menace Squad**

Menace-1: Specialist Keith 'Shady' Taylor  
Menace-2: Ranger Lena Nowak (KIA)  
Menace-3: Ranger Simba Mazibuko  
Menace-4: Sharpshooter John Kyung (KIA)  
Menace-5: Grenadier Ramón Muñoz

**Wraith Squad**

Wraith-1: Reaper Elena 'Outrider' Dragunova (WIA)  
Wraith-2: Ranger Amelia 'Sleight' Grabowski (WIA)  
Wraith-3: Ranger Landon Clark (WIA)  
Wraith-4: Sharpshooter Makoto Yamaguchi  
Wraith-5: Grenadier Johannes Vos

**Neutralised Opposition**

2 x ADVENT Officers  
6 x ADVENT Troopers  
4 x ADVENT Purifiers  
4 x ADVENT Stun Lancers  
1 x Faceless

**Assessment**

Out of Haven's population of 127, we confirm 15 survived, 44 injured and 68 dead or missing. Gladys 'Denmother' Culbert is in critical condition and the majority of the settlement is in ruins. While a scenario like this was expected to happen in light of recent events, this attack has had a demoralizing effect on the morale of the Resistance.

Suggest relocation of the remaining populace to nearby cells as we await for covert operatives to return with further information regarding the whereabouts of Mox. In the interim, recommend Richard and Lily look to implement modifications to network to improve response time to further attacks in the future, while coordinating training exercises with the militia of other settlements. Members among Haven's survivors are also to be screened to determine potential recruits so we can consider formation of a third squad. Particular attention is to be focused on surviving militia that were not lost in the attack.


End file.
